Aubergines à la Provençale

Aubergines à la Provençale (Provençal-style eggplants) teaches one discipline: water is the enemy of a gratin. The aubergine is already tender and generous; the tomato must be cooked until concentrated, or it will flood the shells, soften the crumbs, and turn a bright southern dish into a puddle.

The book's formula assumed that the fried shell-and-pulp base was already understood, a saucier had smooth tomato sauce waiting, and a salamander stood ready to bronze the top. At home, one wide pan cooks the filling, one cup of prepared tomato sauce replaces the constantly tended sauce pot, and the broiler does the salamander's work. The quantities here are scaled to four small aubergines, while the intended sequence remains intact: tomato replaces dry Duxelles, garlic and olive oil season the filling, breadcrumbs form the gratin, and tomato sauce surrounds it. The extra hands are scaffolding; that sequence is the dish. One cook, one stove, one evening.

When it is right, the aubergine shells slump tenderly beneath a compact red filling, the crumbs are crisp and golden, and the surrounding sauce gleams without touching the crust. Cook the tomato-pulp mixture until a spoon drawn through it leaves a clean path that stays open. That dryness is the one step that decides the whole gratin.